Farm Heroes Saga Guide for Beginners

Farm Heroes Saga is yet another popular entry in King’s social media gaming empire. Although the gameplay borrows heavily from Candy Crush Saga, there’s still enough here that’s different about Farm Heroes Saga to warrant some separate coverage. In my Farm Heroes Saga guide, I’ll be hitting the high points of the game and covering the basics. Hopefully after reading my Farm Heroes Saga tips, you’ll be ready to match some crops and recruit some animals to take down Rancid the Raccoon.

Farm Heroes Saga – The Basics

The basic gameplay of Farm Heroes Saga is very similar to Candy Crush Saga. Both feature a core mechanic that is essentially “Match 3 to Win.” In most Farm Heroes Saga levels, your objective is to match crops together (NB: the game calls these “cropsies” but I can’t say that with a straight face…) to meet certain quotas. At the end of every level, you’ll get a rating (out of 3 stars). This rating is called your Growth Rate.

Unlike in Candy Crush Saga, there are no points awarded towards your final score-slash-Growth Rate for doing things that aren’t directly connected to the objective. If you match crops that aren’t part of the level’s objective, you earn no Growth Rate.

Your Growth Rate must be at least one star in order to clear a level. However, you do earn additional bonuses for getting two or three stars, which we’ll cover later.

As with Candy Crush Saga, the general strategy is to start from the bottom, matching as much as you can in the lower squares. This will give you more “free” matches as the crops clear out and shift. However, there are a wealth of new mechanics here we need to watch out for.

Farm Heroes Saga – Crop Bonuses (+1’s)

As you match next to a square containing a crop you need, the value of these nearby crops increases. This is shown with a “+1” or other number on top of the crop’s square. The numbers will go down every time you make a match, though. Thus, to get the best scores in Farm Heroes Saga, you’ve got to match frequently in the same areas in order to take advantage of these bonuses.

Making better than 3-in-a-row matches also contributes to these Crop Bonuses in different ways:

4 in a row matches will give you a +2 where you’d otherwise get a +1 bonus

5 in a row matches will send orbs flying across the level, giving +1 bonuses to distant crops

6 crop matches (ie, an L or T shape) will cause light to shoot out in all four directions from the match, which will add +1’s to all crops in that line and column.

Farm Heroes Saga – Level Bonuses

If you manage to clear a level in Farm Heroes Saga without using all of your moves, Hero Mode will start. This is similar to “Sugar Crush” from Candy Crush Saga. Every turn after Hero Mode starts, you’ll see animals fly in from off the screen and hit random crops, giving them a free +1. This is similar to what happens when you get a 5-in-a-row match.

When you finish a level, the Growth Rate determines the amount of Magic Beans you get. So far I’ve seen that you get:

75 Beans for a 1-star Growth Rate

150 Beans for a 2-star Growth Rate

250 Beans for a 3-star Growth Rate

We’ll cover Magic Beans in a later section, but more Beans is always a good thing!

Farm Heroes Saga – Special Levels

As the levels get more difficult, more objectives are added to the mix. Even early on, you’ve got a couple of special levels to watch out for:

In levels that look like a “cow” icon, getting more stars in your Growth Rate will unlock animals that will join you as part of your Farm Club. As you fill the Farm Club, you’ll unlock free boosts that would otherwise cost you! Thus, to max out your Farm Heroes Saga experience, it pays to get 3 stars for your Growth Rate in each of these levels if you can.

Related GuideNeed help understanding the Farm Club? Check out our Farm Club Guide!

In levels that look like a raccoon face, you will face off against Rancid the Raccoon. Here, you’ll need to make as many matches of the selected crops as you can. When you do, Rancid loses health. When he’s all out of health, you win!

You can spend your beans here to make these levels easier, although I’d advise you to save as many beans as you can in the early going – if Farm Heroes Saga is anything like Candy Crush Saga, you can bet there are many hard levels to come.

Farm Hero Saga Currencies – Lives, Beans, and Gold

There are several major currencies in Farm Heroes Saga, each with it’s own strategy:

The Heart icon represents your lives. Just like in Candy Crush Saga, lives will let you retry a level if you fail. If you’ve got no lives left, you’re going to have to wait a while, plunk down some Gold, or bug your friends.

The Bean icon represents your Magic Beans. Like I mentioned before, the better you do in a level, the more Magic Beans you’ll earn. These can be traded for assistance during a Rancid Raccoon level. You can spend Beans to make these levels easier by adding +1 or +2 to all crops for the entire level. (They used to let you buy Shovels with Beans, but you can’t anymore!) You can buy more Beans if you need to, but this is the one currency you can earn by playing, so it makes sense to stockpile it!

The Gold icon shows your current Gold level. Gold replaces the microtransactions from Candy Crush Saga. Instead of spending money to get extra turns or boosts, you can spend Gold instead. You start out Farm Heroes Saga with 20 free gold, but all the rest you’re going to have to pay for.

Farm Hero Saga Boosts

Like Candy Crush Saga, there are “boosts” that can get you through tough Farm Heroes Saga levels. You can buy some boosts with Beans (such as the Shovel), but most will cost you Gold. You get a small amount of gold when you start, but past that it seems like getting more is quite rare. In addition to accumulating boosts, Gold also allows you to continue a level if you run out of moves.

Unlike Candy Crush Saga, you will also accumulate boosts through waiting. Here’s a handy table to boosts, what they do, and how long it takes to charge them:

Name

Description

Cost

Recharge Time

Shovel

Removes one square from the board. In the case of flowers, it grows them one stage, or in the case of eggs it cracks them if they aren’t already cracked.

9 Gold for 3x

6 hours

Tractor

Removes a line of crops from the board, no effect on non-crop squares.

12 Gold for 3x

12 hours

Bonus Rewarder

Gives all required crops a +1 boost.

16 Gold for 3x

18 hours

Color Collector

Collects all of a given crop from the board.

19 Gold for 3x

24 hours

Farm Hero Saga: Conclusion

Farm Hero Saga seems to be taking the basic formula of Candy Crush Saga and adding some “industry standard” free-to-play strategies on top of it. It’s got it’s own premium currency, and there’s more ways to earn in-game rewards than just paying money. King’s already proven their dominance over the mobile/social scene, so will Farm Heroes Saga cement their position?

I think if you’re already sick of the Candy Crush Saga formula, there’s not really enough here that’s different that is going to change your mind. However, if bits of Candy Crush Saga grate, or you gave up due to the difficulty or frustration level of that game, there is some welcome relief here in Farm Heroes Saga.

This game was finally released for iOS and Android near the end of 2013! Mobile phone owners rejoice! There are a few changes from the Facebook version, but for the most part the game is fully intact. Look for more guides from Without the Sarcasm about Farm Heroes Saga soon!